Global positioning satellite (GPS) components and systems are commonly used by mobile programmable devices (for example, smart phone, tablet, automobile navigation and anti-theft devices, etc.) to determine their geographic location, based on time and the known position of GPS satellites in communication with the mobile device, wherein GPS satellites continuously transmit their current time and position to the mobile device as receiver. A GPS receiver generally monitors communications with multiple satellites and determines a precise position of the receiver based on differences in time for data to move between the respective satellites, the known locations of the satellites, and deviation from true time.
Alternatives to GPS systems for determining the location of a mobile device include control plane locating and “Near Location Based Services” (NLBS). With control plane locating, sometimes referred to as “positioning”, a mobile phone service provider determines general area locations of a cell phone based on the radio signal delay of the closest cell-phone towers, for example as probably within or outside of the boundaries of a city or other defined area. Near LBS (NLBS) generally uses low energy and limited-range technologies such as Bluetooth®, wide local area network (WLAN), infrared, radio frequency identifier (RFID), co-pilot beacon data for CDMA networks and other near field communication technologies, to match devices as most proximate, nearby service nodes having known locations. (BLUETOOTH is a trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. in the United States or other countries.) NLBS relies on accessing location information from nodes in their immediate surroundings, and is commonly used inside buildings and other closed premises or restricted or regional areas, wherein a device may be located within different zones defined by the wireless communication range of respective nodes.